Active Mind, Creative Spirit
Adventure Reflection
“Stoopid photographers!” I yelled to no one, because there was no one there to hear. In reviewing my adventures, I find the most fun, exhilarating, and rewarding ones have one thing in common: I find myself saying, often in a stupor from cold, or…
Hiking Stories
Danu is my regular weekend hiking buddy. He’s been in the US for twenty years, but before that he was a mountain guide all over the Himalayas and has guided summits of Everest. As you might imagine, he has a thousand stories. He’s been back in…
In Search of the Larch
We were supposed to backpack to The Enchantment Lakes area, having jumped through all the hoops to secure a set of coveted passes for the restricted, fragile, high alpine region. This was the weekend we wanted because the change of season brings a very…
How Photographers Hike
Went on a hike to see pretty things and get a little exercise. But it was a photographer’s hike, which means doing it during hours that don’t make sense to most people. And the people it does make sense to are either mountain climbers…
What’s Left of the Glacier
During the last week of June I led a single overnight to the south foot of Mt Baker in the North Cascades. Anyone who is familiar with the hiking trails in that area is reading the first sentence again. Yes, the trails, usually not…
Twenty Four Hour Escape
Written Sunday morning at 5:40 am, after dawn, before the sun crawled out from behind Cascade ridges, during a 24-hour escape from regular life. I had a mouse on my head last night. I had just faded to sleep with the delightfully wild white…
Mt Dickerman Photos
The North Cascades in February. Usually this route is inaccessible until June. There is too much snow to manage, it’s prone to avalanches and requires too much plowing for winter maintenance, so they gate the road about 10 miles down, right before the perpetual…
International Summit
[From an old blog ca: 2009] I could tell you that I summitted Mt Si with 2 guys I barely know. I could tell you they were a Boeing engineer and a radiologist. I could tell you they were both older than me. That’d…
Secret Spaces
I love people. I really love people. But I also love untrammeled wild spaces and I think that the North Cascades are one of those places where the masses shouldn’t go. I think it’s fine for most of humanity to approximate the experience by…
Photographer’s Climb
“You see that saddle over there? That’s where we’re going.” Note the knob on the left (mostly un-named on trail maps) and the peak on the right (Mt Ruth, 7115 feet elevation) as well as the tiny tuft of trees you can see in the middle….
Camp Exercises
The first family camp of the season is always an exercise in what we forgot. This year our long weekend on Orcas Island had a few extra quirks, namely that we brought a boat. We have a new canoe-kayak hybrid beast because my family…
Glacier Goats
In a way I am relieved that the national parks are closed. The poor animals are getting a rest from the thousands of people-feet that tread through their homes all year. I wonder if it feels like a vacation to them. When we were…
It Happens Out There
I am shirking my work to write this. I’ve been wanting to blog all week, but I am in catch-up mode, as usual. I woke up this morning determined to get a certain list of things accomplished. I hammered, I processed, I answered mail….
Visual Post Story #1
[I know, the photo runs over the edge, but I needed it this size so you can see details] I took this as a simple documentary photo. I meant to capture the group, pre-dawn, in front of Everest, getting ready for an event. I…